The first in a series of three forthcoming creations, Heyoka – La Tête à l’envers (Upside down) is a resolutely musical and danced carnival…

‘Do what you like’, proclaims the carnival, but its order is rigorous, whether it’s a liberating dance, a parade or a crazy Tarantella. Heyoka – La Tête à l’envers is a quest for a space of collective… organised intoxication!

A time for derision, inversion and permissible rebellion, carnival, in its most diverse forms and from all horizons, conjures up fears and exalts human folly. Fear of death, of returnees, of the return of the beast, fear of lack and of an uncertain future, the need to expel the hurts and tensions of a past year. Carnival combines the expression of all extremes: the beautiful and the ugly, the clean and the dirty, the human and the animal, the bestial and the monster.

We won’t break any traditions: Heyoka – La Tête à l’envers is a masked, costumed carnival, definitely danced to the same music, a refrain repeated ad infinitum, interspersed with chanted poems, danced verses and psalmodies specific to each participating group.

And while the show is performed by a group of six professional dancers, it will also require the presence of many other brotherhoods… With the support of a theatre, a community of municipalities or a town, the Pernette company comes to meet the future carnival-goers. During a lengthy preparation process, they will find their ‘clique’ identity around a single theme: letting go of our fears and the malevolent elements that poison our lives! Make-up, headdress, singing, costumes and, of course, choreography are all worked on and prepared in groups to give the carnival a total makeover.